Turning Back Time
by Kuchengelybber
Summary: Returning home for the holidays can be harder than imagined. Especially if everybody else is retuning, too. Sappy romance story... I can't even summarize it. Uh... I suppose this is AU.


_Good day! So this would be the second story I'm publishing here. I wrote the prologue a while ago. (Yes, the story does indeed have more than one chapter.)  
This is the kind of little romance-meeting-again-after-half-a-decade stories I just love to read over and over again. It's boring and sappy, but I just wanted to write something like that, too, just once.  
I'm not happy with the prologue, though, as I'm never happy with my work, it sure isn't perfect with me not even being a native speaker, but hey, I'm doing this for fun. I would, however, be thankful for any thoughts you can offer. (Means: _Give me reviews, please! Please! I love reviews!_)  
I'm publishing now, by the way, because I can't have Everwood dying here when I'm just starting to write. Everwood for ever!  
I hope you'll enjoy the story!  
One thing I guess I have to say:_ I don't own anything at all, except the storyline maybe.

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**_ Turning Back Time_**

_Prologue_  
The December morning in the year of 2011 that she found herself walking the streets of Everwood again after two years of absence was snowy and so cold that the air pricked her skin like needles where ever reachable. She still remembered the days well when she, as a girl, had been playing in that snow in her thick skiing clothes. It was long ago: In her black coat and the red scarf there wasn't much left to see of that girl. Only her brother's old cap with that too big bobble on top gave her away a little, not fitting that ladylike style. The cap was old, he'd worn it as a child, but searching the closets it had been the only one she'd been able to find in her hurry. It did have it's charm, and certainly held some good memories of snowball fights and sledding races.  
She shoved her red-gloved hands deep into her coat pockets. The soft, finely spun and woven wool rubbed lightly against her palms.  
Everwood's main street was frozen over and once in a while a car would slither by not much faster than she was herself. She'd been walking all the way from the house she'd grown up in to that only main street her little town had ever known. Everwood felt good, felt right. Felt cold, but home. It was her home, she felt that more than ever, seeing it again. Remembering. The snow on the sidewalk, though plowed several times a day on the main street, was old and hard and icy. An Everwoodian at heart she should've known better than to wear her high-heeled boots, but lost in thoughts she hadn't even noticed until she'd landed on her bottom ten minutes from home. And she hadn't wanted to go back, to that beloved place she'd fled from, though it wasn't really the _place_ she was trying to avoid.  
The streets were still empty that Wednesday morning at seven thirty and only dimly one could guess where the sun was going to rise. Still a warm light illuminated that little town. Christmas decoration, oh, how she loved that holiday. Surprisingly enough, she still felt her toes as she passed by an unfamiliar building, a supermarket. Odd, it seemed, in a town that never changed. _The town that time forgot_, an old, long-lost friend had once called it and that quote burnt in her chest. She took a pace backwards and lingered for a while admiring the Christmas decoration in the shop-window. It was silent for the birds hush at cold winter mornings. Deciding to give her cold feet a rest, she entered. A bell jingled with the opening of the door and the cashier looked up, a teenager with the darkest circles under his eyes. She gave him a smile and moved her mouth in attempt to say "hi" but she'd lost her voice somewhere on that icy sidewalk. He weakly smiled back. "'Lo." The light in the market was cold and white, not very Chrismassy, but the room was nice and warm. The market was big and in some corners, heads down she spotted a few other early risers behind the shelves. She walked on, deeply inside the store, disappearing herself between the rows of shelves.  
Absent-mindedly eyeing things she'd never buy she slowly moved deeper inside. Life was odd these days as she thought about her life more closely than she ever had. It no longer felt right and happy and she missed her life back in Everwood. Life was odd these days and she didn't know why.  
As she looked up from the bottle she was holding she saw, vision blurred, brown hair on a bent down head on the opposite side of the shelf. Slowly she focussed and recognizing, a long lost glow and a surprised smile spread widely across her face. "Ephram." The young man jerked backwards with a start, looked up with those piercing blue eyes painfully. "Amy?" Her eyes moved from left to right a little, thinking. She nodded never ceasing to smile so brightly and her eyes fixed on him again, "yeah, it's me. Oh, it's so good to see you. It's been ages, hasn't it?" He nodded and looked down, so troubled, "five years." He was struggling for breath, she knew she'd caught him off guard. He hadn't changed much in those years. His hair was the same length as the day he left shortly before his nineteenth birthday. And he still wore a black coat. Yet he looked exhausted and utterly tired with those rings around his eyes. He was probably working too hard, she remembered how ambitious he could get. His skin was pale, but his cheeks were red, almost blue. From wandering the freezing streets of Everwood, she figured. She probably looked alike. "Home for the holidays?", she asked him waiting for him to look back up, which he did bringing her heart to a stop for only one second. "Yeah, I... I. Eventually. Delia begged me to. She has a new boyfriend she wanted to introduce to me and I, I managed to get a few free days into my schedule." She kept on smiling, couldn't help it.  
"I don't remember you as an early bird," he commented. "Well... I just... had to get out of the house a little. Get my mind off of things." – "Family can be a real pain, huh?", he shrugged, tried to smile, but it looked rather crooked. "It's not that..." She wanted to tell him, wanted to talk to him. She missed him so much. "Oh..." but he didn't ask. And he was right not to, their relationship was not that kind anymore. "So when did you arrive?", he asked. She snapped out of her melancholic trance and looking back at him, her smile returned, "yesterday. Late. About eleven PM. You?" His smile gained honesty, "yesterday. Early. About eleven AM." He looked at the bottle she was holding in her clenched hands right beneath her chin and reluctantly grinned. "You going bald?" – "Huh?", she looked at the bottle and almost dropped it in surprise. "N-no..." she quickly placed it back on the shelf, "I was just... looking." To prove it to him she pulled off the cap and blushed. In five years, she hadn't changed her hair either, the blonde curls, gorgeous as ever, curled down to her shoulders shining in the white light like liquid gold, a little fuzzy now, after being stuck under a cap of scratchy old wool. "You know you've got that bald spot right on top of your head, don't ya?", he joked and she was glad to feel that bond returning lightly. "Jerk."  
"Thanks." She smiled brightly, "you're welcome... So. How have you been doing? I didn't hear much about you." He shrugged his shoulders with a smile, "that's probably because there isn't much to hear about me." – "Oh, come on, I'm sure there is," she nudged him, "you have your bachelor's degree since last year, they say." He nodded, "and now I'm doing my master's." Her eyes widened, "really?" – "Yeah," he smiled. "Oh Ephram, I'm so proud of you. I knew you'd make it!" He laughed, "wait. I don't have it yet!" She almost started bobbing up and down. "I have always believed in you, you know?" With another smile he nodded. "I'm sorry for the way we left things," she confessed suddenly sad, reminded of their past and the closeness they used to share. "What way is that?", he looked pleading and confused, as though he only knew what she meant deep down inside. "So cold and so... broken." The words sunk in.  
"It wasn't cold," he replied and shook his head slowly, "not on my part. I cried as we said goodbye." Thinking about it. "Me too. I cried for us. I cried because we were barely friends anymore and I knew I wouldn't see you again. I never wanted us to end that way, Ephram, I swear." She swallowed the lump in her throat holding back the tears at the memory of losing him for good. She had chased him away; she knew it and he knew it, too. So just a long gazing at each other remained of the conversation, until he finally croaked an "I know" looking down. "Changes nothing..."  
He had loved her, he had really loved her. She remembered that one-night stand six years earlier. _"Amy..." he had looked so helpless and scared, yet hopeful sitting on the floor and she, so powerfully, above him, "I still love you."_ But she hadn't been able to and hadn't wanted to. He had been too late.  
"Anyway," he tried to go back to casual, "you know, I've been hearing a lot about you, Amy," he said her name slowly, his voice sounding so wistful and delicate, "Everwood loves to gossip about it's favorite couple. My father's now one of them... quite apart from my sister." He gave her a weary smile, she made a sorry attempt to smile back. "What did you hear?", she asked softly. "Well, you guys got married." She nodded. "You graduated." She nodded again. "You moved to California." She shook her head, "no, we... we thought about it, but... we live in Oregon. Near Mount Hood." He nodded, scrutinized her face carefully, thinking. "They are also saying that you are trying to have a baby but it doesn't work," he said looking down sadly. She looked at him in shock, "they are? I-I... I mean... wh-why would they say that?" He shrugged though, "I don't know. So it's not true?" Oh, but he cared. He cared! She loved the thought, despite knowing she shouldn't.  
She couldn't speak for some seconds, returning to the actual topic: How would they know? It stung deeply, that the most intimate details of her life had been discussed in public, had reached Ephram. That was something she had always hated about Everwood. Privacy did not exist. "N-no... no! It's... it's not entirely true." He stuck his hands into his pockets, shrugged and looked at her with concern. And hurt. "Then what's true about it?"  
"Colin... wants a baby. I don't. He's been trying to sweet-talk me into it for a year now." He looked rather satisfied with that information, looked even triumphant, but Amy barely noticed. "Looks like he's not going to succeed." She confirmed that conclusion with a nod, "definitely. Not till I'm thirty anyway. I mean, what's he thinking? I'm only twenty-four!"  
Ephram looked at her for a while, seemingly blank, "maybe he's just in love." True, he certainly was. She locked eyes with the young man in front of her, "is that what men want when they're in love?" He broke the eye contact within the following seconds, eyes moving, looking at everything but her. "I-I..." he stuttered, blushing, giving a short laugh, "I could i-imagine it. Lively, even. If... if I were in love wi-with... a woman. If I were in love with a woman." He paused and carefully looked up, then locked eyes again, head still bent, humbly. "Isn't it... isn't it the most beautiful way to express... live my love to someone... I mean... to create something so... incredible and beautiful and unique, something that has our blood running through it's veins... with you. Her, I-- I mean. Not you, I didn't mean to say you. We were just talking about you and Colin and me and somebody I'd love," he rambled, "I. I just... mixed it all up." She laughed about his cuteness happily, smiled brightly, "it's okay, Ephram." She couldn't help but sing his name, surprised herself by the feeling that seeing him again was the highlight of her year.

Colin Hart sure loved his wife more than anything. They'd gone through the worst and the best times together, they had been separated, but eventually, like in the fairytales, had always found back together, leaving up to a few weeks earlier no doubt in his mind that they were meant to be. He still believed in their love, it had suffered so many times, but it had always ended up much stronger than it had been before. In the end not even Ephram had been able to tear them apart. Amy was his now and he hoped nobody could change that, she'd chosen him, even over Ephram and that had been the ultimate proof to him. Back then.  
Standing at the window in the Abbott's living room, he was gazing out of the window, wondering where she was, so early. He'd woken up at seven, bed empty, the clothes she'd placed on a chair the evening before gone. Ever since, he was looking, staring, watching every movement outside. Everything outside had been dyed in dark blue first so he hadn't seen much, but soon enough daylight had come, leaving the blue in the snow light and in pastels. Cold in color as in reality. Cold as in his heart. Colin had been addled for a while as a young man, but aside from that had never been stupid, he sensed Amy wasn't feeling well lately, the way she avoided him, the way she turned her back on him in her sleep. It used to be different. Now she made him feel cold. In walking away from him in the middle of the night as though she could no longer bear to share a bed with him. He raised his eyebrows as a dark green SUV stopped at the side of the street and watched carefully. Amy got out, saying some last words to the driver, slamming the door and then, smiling more widely than he'd seen in a while, walked up the driveway.  
The car remained till he heard the keys in the lock of the door, then left. He heard how the door got opened slowly. Amy was careful not to wake anyone up. He heard her happy sigh, heard her coat slipping off her shoulders. "Whose car was that?", he asked trying to sound friendly and walked up to her out of the living-room. Still she flinched away from him, gave him a scared look, coat in her hands. "Dr. Brown's. Ephram drove me," then, changing the subject, "you scared me. I thought everyone was still asleep." He nodded, jaw tightening, "Ephram." Jealousy was a feeling only that one man could give him, his only weak spot. "I didn't know you were still in contact with him." She narrowed her eyes, placed her coat on a hook, "this doesn't suit you, Colin. I'm tired of these discussions, just forget it, will you?" He felt the anger, tried to hold it back, "you cheated on me with him. I can't _just forget_ that! I never wanted to think of him again and now I find out you're still seeing him and I should just.. smile about it? Sorry, Amy, I can't do that." Amy sighed, got out of her boots not saying anything and then walked into the living-room. "I'm not _seeing_ him. I just _met_ him, at a _store_, when I went for a _walk_. He's been my_best friend_, not to mention pretty much my _only_ friend at the worst times of my life. Should I have just ignored him?" Colin came to a standing in front of her, "why not, Amy? He almost ruined our life." He heard it when she mumbled, "not quite sure 'bout that," looking down. "What's that supposed to mean?!", he almost yelled at her. "Be quiet, Colin, my family's still asleep! We're guests in this house." He sighed, "Amy. Is it really too much to ask you to keep away from him? After all that happened between you two?" He pleaded with her. "Yes, Colin, it is!", she replied determined, "it is if I want to see him. I'm not yours, I'm just your wife. I know what we did wasn't right and we hurt you incredibly much, but Ephram and I... we've been through too much to just ignore him at a store. Please understand... we're just friends. I married you, remember? If I wanted to be with him, I would've married him, wouldn't I?" He reluctantly nodded. Even if he wouldn't have been able to point his finger at it, something about the look in her eyes when she said that bothered him. For a second he thought he'd seen regret, but it was gone before he'd been able to give a closer look. He was paranoid concerning Ephram, he had probably just imagined it.  
In his head, though, he saw them together. Amy running up to her secret lover, hugging and kissing him, telling him she'd missed him so much. He saw them in bed together, having rough and passionate sex, while he barely remembered what her naked body looked like. "I still don't like it," he whispered shrugging, looking down. He loved the way she laughed, when she thought something was sweet, the way she did right then. "I know." Slowly she moved a hand through his hair. He wanted to purr like a kitten at her gentle touch. He was like putty in her hands, felt guilty for having believed, that she would go and break his heart just like that. She had loved Ephram. She had truly and dearly loved Ephram, but they all knew it was over. It had ended with the one time she slept with him in college, she'd told him. She had needed this ending for what had been between her and Ephram. They had deserved an ending. "I love you, Colin," she whispered swallowing, in reply he just hugged her. Good to know.

Exhausted, Ephram entered his father's house with a loud and desperate sigh, he got rid of the packet of cornflakes he'd bought on the shelf under the mirror at one of the walls in the entrance hall right next to the door and first of all grabbed his chin between index finger and thumb, loosening his jaw in shaking it a little. Oh, God hated him. Amy Abbott... or Amy _Hart_, of all people! He'd clenched his teeth so tightly his jaw now hurt. So nervous he had been, so stressed, just because she'd been there. He pushed off his coat and hung it up, sighed again shaking his head to get rid of the cold and the thoughts. He formed fists with his hands, then spread his fingers again. He was stiff. Then, kicking off his shoes he grabbed the cornflakes and plodded into the kitchen. His eyelids hung, he had to yawn, his mind was operating on low energy, now that full concentration had overtaxed him talking to Amy so early that morning.  
He spotted the milk outside the refrigerator, right where he'd left it. "Damn it." He threw the packet of cornflakes knocking, lucky as he was, down a glass into the sink. The noise was unbearable to his tired ears, while another sound, a thud, from the living-room slowly entered his mind. Sam. He silently cursed himself and slowly turned to look at the tired fourteen-year-old, who came from the living-room rubbing the back of his head. "What the heck?", he asked in a croaky voice, "it's, like, five in the morning or something, why are you so noisy. I'm trying to sleep here."  
"Sorry," Ephram replied with a sigh, rubbing his eyes, "didn't mean to wake you." – "Hell, I'm awake anyway." Sam obviously didn't like to be woken up early in the morning. The blonde teen sat down at the kitchen island. "What the f... what are you doing anyways?!" Had he been such an annoying teenager aswell? He grimaced, definitely. "Just trying to eat cornflakes." Sam raised an eyebrow and nodded, "I see." The boy cocked his head to the side a little and looked at the sink scenario, "you're not being aggressive or anything?" He followed Sam's look with his own eyes and nodded, "I just met an old friend I'd rather not wanted to meet." Sam gave him a questioning look, "I used to think people like to meet old friends." – "Well, normal friends, maybe," Ephram replied, "but she's the ex." He flopped down next to Sam. Sam's eyes widened, "_the_ ex?"  
"No, the other one." In Ephram's life there had only been two important girlfriends, two women he'd loved, two women he'd been hurt by so badly. Madison and Amy. While he always just called Madison "the ex" for giving away his son, which he'd never forgive, Amy had only been a repressed memory to that day, because he couldn't even bear to hear her name.  
"That Amy girl, huh?" Amy was a legend in the Brown's house. The only girl that ever really understood Ephram, she'd been ready to do so much for him. The only person who had ever made Ephram truly happy. The first girl he ever truly loved, probably the only one as well. Not to mention that he had been her one and only. For one year they had left no doubt in that they were meant to be, that they would get married one day and have many little Ephrams and Amys. Had a true love story if there ever was one. And especially, she was the most interesting subject, because, for some mysterious reason, Ephram refused to talk about her. "Yeah. _That Amy girl_."  
"Wow," was all the comment Sam gave him, he knew how much love Ephram had felt for that particular girl, and that girl only in his entire life. Ephram, at a loss for words aswell, returned Sam's stare blankly nodding. "Yeah... _wow_." Sam also nodded, slowly, feeling utterly uncomfortable in that conversation. It wasn't like he had much in common with Ephram Brown, the perfect prodigious son, his step-father's whole pride and joy. He wasn't jealous, he didn't mind, but he was fourteen and Ephram twenty-four – he barely knew that man. "And now? What d'ya think?", was the safest thing to ask, after all he was interested in Ephram, who still was sort of his big brother, who he kind of liked judging by all the stories he'd heard of him.  
"_What do I think?_", Ephram repeated still staring blankly, slowly digesting the words, realizing that telling Sam _what he was_ _thinking_ required thinking at all, so he slowly tried to recover from that Amy-shock. "I think..." he pondered looking over to the exits of the room, preferring anything to having to talk about her, "I think I'm gonna be sick." His eyes returned to a Sam raising his eyebrows at him. "That wasn't a joke. I'd run if I were you." But Sam did the opposite resting his head on his arms on the counter, looking up at him tiredly, "did anyone ever tell you that you're really strange?" Ephram shrugged not bothering to cover his mouth as he yawned loudly, "they didn't have to. But I was told I was different once." It hurt him to be reminded of her all over again, but she would never leave his head. His head, his daydreams, his nights, his life. She and her words and the things she'd done. He was tormenting himself each and every day of his life. He couldn't let go. "Ah... okay." He realized Sam could not understand that one, he felt he had to defend her, "she meant it nice... I think. At least she said it when she was trying to apologize." The memory made him smile as he slipped into it more, "I wanted to leave, go back to New York, we were only fifteen and just friends, but she didn't want me to leave. She was so sweet, she was spinning on that stool, y'know, a swivel chair, she spun herself and then looked at me, so... I don't know. Somehow nervous, but not really nervous and started talking so fast... she often does when she's nervous. I always thought it was cute. _I_ told _her_, by the way, that she was strange." The memory excited him, the memories of her always did. "You mean Amy?", Sam tried to make sure. "Huh? ... Yeah. Yeah, Amy." The name, then again, hurt. He sunk to the same position as Sam and looked straight forward, unconsciously biting his sleeve.


End file.
